You don't want to demote Kesler, and you certainly don't want to waste Hansen and Burrows defensive abilities either. All three of those guys can contribute offensively, kill penalties, and shutdown the opponent's top lines. They will generate loads of chances off of turnovers. Kesler is one of the top shutdown centers in the league, but he's also probably in the top 20 scoring centers as well. Burrows knows how to be a playmaker and distribute to linemates. Hansen is a pure north south skater who goes to all the dirty areas and has good wheels. I think that line would be the scariest shutdown line in the NHL when you consider that the slowest guy on the line is Burrows. No coach is ever going to want to see his top line out against them.

It has been well established that Booth is useless defensively. He's fairly 2-dimensional. Fast, drives the net, and shoots the puck. Schreoder is not a defensive center but certainly thinks the offensive zone well, Raymond can back check but he's not really strong in our end, and we all know he's damned fast. These guys are not going to make for a scary 2nd scoring line, but I think that they would make a really strong 3rd scoring line that would simply outskate opposing 2nd lines and 4th lines. They would get shutdown by energy lines, and out played by top units, but having them as an option to outskate the other team's 2nd scoring option and journeymen would really give opposing coaches fits.

We know Vigneault doesn't like the idea of not having that 3rd line shutdown option, but he's an ass-hat, and if you can use your second line as a matchup line to shutdown the other teams top scorers while also being a serious threat to add to your own tally.....well that is a thing of beauty.

Our 4th line is weak no matter which way you play it. Malhotra being AV's little buddy just wrecks things because Lap has out played him, Weise has put in more effort, and Volpatti is doing everything he can to throw hits and engage physically. Higgins is the odd man out in the top 9 right now, and does turn a 4th line that wins faceoffs (thanks Malhotra) into a line that can at least tie the puck up in the offensive zone and burn a few shifts that the bad guys would rather see in our end. If an opposing coach wants to throw 4th line out against 4th line, then Higgins-Malhotra-Lapierre will be out matched physically, but should be able to threaten on the scoreboard against a squad of goons who can't skate.

rats19 wrote:50/50 chance i was right...lofl,, thnx aaron..always trying to have a laff i am..hey wait...but what if its a cause of transferred weight and atrophy from overuse of one side...nah..hes fine

No worries, wasn't sure myself till I checked it out. I just remembered him having the sling on his left side in that twitter pic in the summer.

He looks like he's coming along just fine, he didn't drop the baby or anything so that's a good sign.